“By far the greatest danger of Artificial Intelligence is that people conclude too early that they understand it.” –Eliezer Yudkowsky

Just two weeks after the first Emotion AI Summit–an event that might not have been possible even a year ago–there is an explosion of news around artificial intelligence. The sum of the stories might best be described by the subtitle of my other blog: ridiculous and sublime. As sure as there is the potential to use new technology for both good and evil, there is also the likelihood that someone will use it, well, to be just plain silly. So here is the good, the bad, and the positively daft. And be sure to check out the Seeking Delphi™ Podcast on the Emotion AI Summit, if you missed it last week.

-Vladimir Putin has more to say about artificial intelligence. A few weeks back he said that whomever controls artificial intelligence will control the world. Now he’s warning–get this–artificially intelligent robots might eat us. Sorry for the spoiler alert, but in Will Mitchell’s sci-fi novel, Creations, they sort of do.

—A new report by the World Economic Forum projects the global market for artificial intelligence will grow at a compound rate of over %17, to annual value of US$14 Billion by 2023. It also spews the now commonplace doom and gloom about job displacement.

“Millions long for immortality who don’t know what to do with themselves on a rainy Sunday afternoon.”–Susan Ertz

Like it or not, anti-aging reasearch–the quest to slow, stop, or even reverse the aging process, has gone mainstream. Several serious projects have been funded, animal and even human trials of age retarding pharmaceuticals have begun. It isn’t just on the fringe, anymore.

“Life isn’t a tiptoe through the tulips.”–Shannon Hoon

I understand the value of cryptocurrency–I think. But the valuation? Forget it. Investors’ lives certainly won’t be a tiptoe through the tulips when and if the Bitcoin bubble bursts. But I’ll still love hearing Tiny Tim sing about it. And yes, tulips are still pretty flowers.

QuantumReality–A future after death? The notion of life after death has always been the exclusive realm of the spiritual/religious world–until now, that is. Physicist and author Roger Penrose, along with some others with impressive scientific credentials, now believe that information stored in our brains in a quantum state may live on, along with our consciousness, after we die.This report, on the Galaxy Today web page, hints at any number of ideas which I have expounded on in my other blog, The Millennium Conjectures.

“Getting information off the internet is like taking a drink from a fire hydrant.”–Mitchell Kapor

This week, I feel like I’m trying to take a drink from an open fire hydrant. There’s simply a flood of news from all the usual suspects: A.I., robotics, transhumanism, flying cars, AR, VR, gene editing. Oh, don’t forget Elon Musk–he’s perpetually in the news, though he might have been upstaged by Neil DeGrasse Tyson this week.

Elon Musk–Full page ads–described by CNN as anti-Elon Musk–ran in the Sunday editions of several major news papers including the New York Times and Washington Post. They were run by a silicon valley investor who is critical of Musk’s participation in the Trump business advisory council.

Neil DeGrasse Tyson–Timed to coincide with the national march for science day, Tyson released a statement warning that America faces pending collapse if it abandons the rational, empirical world of science. (video below)

Meanwhile, at the same conference, Facebook executive Regina Dugan announced an ambitious project to enable direct brain to computer typing at 100 words per minute. She asserted that, unlike Elon Musk’s neural lace, this will be a non-invasive process. I can’t wait to be able to think-type “the quick brown fox jumped over the lazy neuron.”

Genetic Editing/CRISPR–Feng Zhang, one of the co-inventors of the breakthrough CRISPR Cas/9 gene editing technique, has a new acronym for you biotech fans. SHERLOCK. It employs a relative of the Cas/9 protein designated Cas/13a and according to a paper published by Zhang and others in the journal Science, will be useful for rapid and cheap diagnosis of genetic disorders.

MiRo, the robotic dog

Robotics–The Daily Mail reported that researchers at the University of Sheffield, in England, have created a robotic dog that is designed to be a responsive companion for the isolated elderly. The article, along with a video, is available here.

“The danger of the past was that men became slaves. The danger of the future is that men may become robots.”–Erich Fromm

You’re fired!

Today’s lead story brings to mind a classic gag from Woody Allen’s early stand-up comic days. He told the story of how his father came home from work one day to report that he had been laid off from his factory job; he was replaced by a 50-dollar part on the assembly line. The sad thing was, his mother immediately ran out and bought one of those parts.

The notion that a manufacturing plant could be comprised of 3D printers run and maintained by robots is mind boggling. So who maintains the maintenance robots? Maintenance maintenance robots? And who maintains the maintenance maintenance robots….?

Space/NASA–NASA astronauts made a big booboo when they lost an important part of the International Space Station during a spacewalk earlier this week. One of four pieces of cloth shielding designed to protect the station from impacts by small bits of orbiting space junk, broke free and floated away. The astronauts were able to make the other three pieces make do. That’s a good thing. For all we know, the interplanetary lost and found could be on Miranda.

Next Big Future reports that there is a push within the Chinese government to triple spending on space science over the next several years. It’s still far less than NASA spends, though. Projections through the year 2030 are provided.

Biotech/Anti-Aging–PureTech Health has licensed a possible anti-aging compound from NovartisMIT Technology Review reported that Boston-based startup company . The drug, everolimus has been shown in clinical trials to increase effectiveness of flu vaccines in elderly patients, suggesting that it effectively makes immune systems younger. The substance is related to rapamycin, which has previously been shown to increase average life span in mice by as much as 25%.

A reminder that the Seeking Delphi™ podcast is available on iTunes, and has a channel on YouTube. You can also follow us on Facebook.

All attempts to adapt our ethical code to our situation in the technological age have failed.–Max Born

When thinking about the future of technology, many envision one extreme or the other. Apocalyptic collapse, or Utopian delight. There is a broad in between, however, filled with ethical as well as existential conundrums. In this episode of Seeking Delphi, I talk with James J. Hughes, director of The Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies about a wide range of issues. These include not just the ethics of if, how, and when to proceed with certain technologies, but the ethics of public policy in dealing with the potentially disruptive social and economic changes they trigger. The future is not black and white–in case you hadn’t noticed–but infinite shades of gray. It’s also clouded by the rise of the right and the Trump administration.

Links to relevant stories appear after the audio file and embedded YouTube video below. A reminder that Seeking Delphi is available on iTunes, and has a channel on YouTube. You can also follow us onFacebook.

“I think science has begun to demonstrate that aging is a disease. If it is, it can be cured.”–Tom Robbins
“I’m not afraid of death. I just don’t want to be there when it happens.”–Woody Allen

Our time is limited. Or is it?

It seems as if many of the biggest players in science and digital industry are obsessed with slowing, stopping, or even reversing aging. New stories appear every day, it seems. And of course, David Wood’s comprehensive study of the issue,The Abolition of Aging, was the subject of the first two episodes of Seeking Delphi. But an editorial in Wired Magazine suggests that the moguls of silicon valley are trying to solve the wrong problem. It asserts that they should be working to improve the quality of life, not the quantity. There are good arguments both ways–reversing aging could greatly improve human health and cut costs drastically–the lions share of healthcare spending treats the diseases of aging. What do you think? The big stories this week:

Biotechnology/Aging Research–

A pair of breakthroughs, one from The University Ulm in Germany, the other from the University of Ulster in the UK, suggest means of using young blood cells to provide anti-aging properties. The two studies are summarized in this article by Next Big Future.

Writing in Wired Magazine, Emily Dreyfus argued that huge investments in anti-aging research by major silicon valley entrepreneurs is barking up the wrong biological tree. She thinks they should be investing in better quality of life rather than increased quantity.